Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Issue:

Mackay and Whitsunday Life

Sailing To Success

A Burdekin-based sailor has joined forces with two Townsville sailors to finish first place at the She SAILS Open Regatta hosted by Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club.

Renee Cordingley and fellow Townsville Sailing Club members Lynda Sawbridge and Tilley Payn formed the NQ Girls and travelled to Newcastle to compete from November 25-26.

The three sailors took the lead and secured the regatta win with an impressive scorecard of 1st and 2nd places with an overall score of 23 points, despite not being able to prepare in the class of boat required for the regatta.

Renee Cordingley was born and bred in Home Hill and, despite the distance from her hometown to the nearest body of water, grew up sailing.

Her family had a hut at Cape Upstart where her dad owned a small boat that she and her brother would play in before he would take the two of them to Bowen to sail.

“My brother was sailing before me and I was sitting on the beach, and somebody needed a crew so they threw me in,” Renee recalled.

“The first time we went, we remember dad saying on the way down that this won’t be happening every weekend, then after my brother got in a boat, I don’t think we missed a weekend,” she laughed.

Renee was aged 10 when she first started competing and would spend weekends travelling to participate in club racing and north Queensland events.

“We quickly got into competing at national titles in the class we were sailing in the time,” she said.

Renee continued sailing after leaving school, focussing on weekend club competitions, when she met her husband who is also a sailor and sail maker.

The pair then started sailing and competing together.

“Other than having kids and needing to take some time off, we pretty much sailed the whole time,” she said.

Sailing with clubs in both Townsville and Bowen, Renee began to compete for national titles again.

“I just love being on the water and I do like to compete,” she said.

In both 2016 and 2017, she joined a group of women from Townsville to compete in the Australian Women’s Keelboat Regatta held in June in Melbourne.

In 2017, Renee skippered crew of five, and they won their division.

Years later, Renee, Lynda Sawbridge and Tilley Payn joined forces to form the NQ Girls.

They compete on a particular class of boat which makes it difficult to prepare as there are no similar boats in north Queensland.

Competing in regattas in both Mooloolaba and Newcastle in 2022 and 2023 are the only times the three ladies have sailed together in this type of boat, making the victory all the more astonishing.

“I’d never seen one before my first time, we just jumped on, pulled a rope to figure out what it does and go from there,” she said.

“It’s really hard to train … the only time we ever sail together is those events.”

Extra satisfaction came from the win after cancelled flights led to a stressful and costly expedition from Home Hill to Newcastle.

“After spending all that money, we thought we’d better win this regatta, so it was nice to actually go and do it,” Renee laughed.

“We were pretty excited.”

Treasurer of the Burdekin Trailer Yacht Club, which was founded in 1979, Renee said there was once a much more vibrant sailing community in the Burdekin.

“The members used to race from Groper Creek up to Cape Upstart,” she said.

“There are only three local yachts in our club at the moment.

“Anyone who wants to come for a sail, they can come and join.”

Contact 0498 002 909 to find out more information about the Burdekin Trailer Yacht Club

Lynda Sawbridge, Tilley Payn and Renee Cordingley. Photo supplied: Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club

Renee Cordingley, Tilley Payn and Lynda Sawbridge accept their prize after taking out the She SAILS Open Regatta in Newcastle. Photo supplied

In other news